


The Depth of Sacrifice

by Uthizaar



Series: Thiam Fics, Short and Smuty [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Human, Choices, Divorce, Fire, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Nightmares, No Chimeras, No Werewolves, Post-Series, Sacrifice, Terrorists, Theo's POV, Thiam, ThiamHalfBirthday, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 23:24:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14987822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uthizaar/pseuds/Uthizaar
Summary: “In the Game of Life, you must play to the death.”The following story contains dark and disturbing themes, see the tags for more information. It is mainly a character piece from Theo’s perspective of a life-changing event that affects his relationship with Liam forever.





	The Depth of Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the "The Game of Life" day for the Thiamhalfbirthday celebration.

It started with a ball of fire, an explosion that rocked the building and set plates crashing from the shelves onto the floor, the sound drowned out by the roaring of flames as they raced up from the fiery wreckage of the car bomb. 

Theo had been reading the last of the mission reports as he waited for Liam to come home. Another day in the Green Zone, another day of the same tense, nervous looks over his shoulder. The country had been stabilizing, but all it would take was a poorly timed bathroom break, a faulty catch on the barricades, and a reinforced bumper to burst through the entrance and charge across the square. Thick tire tracks scored into the muddy ground, flower beds ruined and shredded by the careening vehicle, swerving wildly as the driver sought to maintain control even as the soldiers opened fire. They riddled the windshield and hit the terrorist multiple times, but it was useless, foot strapped to the accelerator, dead weight propelling the vehicle onwards into the residential sector. 

 

A ball of fire was what Theo saw every time he closed his eyes for years afterwards, but only when he was awake, sleeping was…when the monsters came out to play. It had seemed like an easy assignment; run combat operations for The Company as Liam worked his way up from State Department Administration Officer to something more exciting. Their apartment was spacious and airy, with Western appliances, manicured lawns visible from every window, almost enough to make him forget that the barbed wire and patrolling soldiers were all that kept the enemy from their door. Liam didn’t seem to care though, thought of the whole thing as an adventure; travelling together after their honeymoon, seeing the world together, even working together in the Embassy. 

The plates were shards on the floor, shrapnel that slid around as the building’s concrete support pillars buckled and twisted, bare steel becoming visible as entire rooms collapsed and fell down onto the ground below. He could hear the roar of explosions echoing through the structure, gas pipes rupturing and detonating with concussive force under his feet and above his head. Theo was up and on his feet in seconds, classified reports forgotten as his hand automatically checked the firearm on his waist. He moved quickly towards the bathroom, shoulder-charging the door and swearing loudly as he saw Liam hanging on grimly to a towel rack near the entrance, the rear wall just gone, water pouring out of the cracked basin into the afternoon sun, pillars of black smoke obscuring his view of the compound. “I’ve got you!”

“About damn time!” Liam grasped his arm and Theo pulled the naked man back into the relative safety of the hallway. “We have to get out of here!”

“Some pants, first.” Theo growled, snatching a pair from the stack of laundry that he had meant to get a start on that afternoon. “Here.”

“It’s not ironed? Theo!” Liam glared at him. “You were-”

“I know, just focus!” Theo cut across him and raced to the main door, wrenching it open as a secondary explosion ripped up through the building from the south side. “Hurry, Liam, we’re nine floors up, we need to get out before the fire starts spreading.” He grabbed his husband’s hand and helped him out, silently cursing when he realized Liam was barefoot. “No time to go back and get shoes.”

“Wait!” Liam turned around, grunting when Theo wrapped his arms around his waist and lifted him away from the collapsing apartment. “What about Lucy?!” 

“She’s at the vet, remember? Her paw is swollen again.” Theo explained as he led Liam out through the smoke-filled hallway, one hand across his husband’s mouth to protect him from breathing too much in. There were more crashes and bangs as the building grew ever more unsteady and the fires from the explosion spread through the lower levels. He brought them towards a staircase, nodding in relief as the air inside it was cool. “No fire, c’mon, let’s go!” 

 

A ball of fire exploded beside them as they climbed down the stairs at the entrance to the third floor. As Theo sheltered Liam from the shards of shattering glass from the door, he could see the red and orange inferno billowing along the corridor towards them. He made to harass Liam to continue on when his husband went still and wouldn’t move. “C’mon, we’re nearly there! Fire and rescue should be on site, we just have to get out of here.”

“I hear something,” Liam looked at the broken door in horror. “Theo! Mrs Wallace teaches the kindergarten kids arts and crafts after school every Wednesday; they’ll still be in there.”

“No, Liam, don’t!” Theo shouted as his husband twisted away from him and dashed into the burning hallway. He pushed open the door, attempting to go after him, burning his palm in the process. “Fuck! Come back here!” 

“I can reach them!” Liam yelled in between fits of coughing. He pointed at the brightly painted door, tongues of red fire licking up against the wood. Liam didn’t waste another moment before charging inside and disappearing from Theo’s sight.

“Liam!” The man pulled the hem of his shirt over his mouth and nose and strode determinedly through the fire. He could see the flashing of emergency lights outside the building, reflecting off the disturbed pools and shiny surfaces of the civilian motor pool nearby. Theo could hear the sound now, over the crackle of burning wood and melting plastic, the falling of masonry and the howl of the approaching fire; children screaming in terror. The door to Mrs Wallace’s apartment was open and Theo could see Liam crouching next to a group of the young kids, trying to calm them, Mrs Wallace herself lying several feet away, crushed by a collapsed girder. 

Theo jumped across the wall of thigh-high fire and into the living room. Pots of spilled paint and boxes of crayons littered the floor, the children’s half-finished drawings lying side-by-side as the flames moved ever closer. “Liam, this is…bad.”

“I couldn’t just leave them!”

“I know, hang on.” Theo glanced over his shoulder, seeing fires roaring outside the door, thick, black smoke completely obscuring his view. “Ok, we won’t be going out again, the stairs are definitely a no-go, um, the lower level apartments always have a balcony…”

“Forget it, we’ll never get them all out that way!” Liam cried, turning back to comfort the little girl that was sobbing against his knee. “Hey, no, petal, don’t worry, it’s gonna be ok. Theo’s is going to find a way, right?” He added, looking at his husband determinedly. 

“Yeah.” The man nodded, a sinking feeling settling in his stomach as he weighed the odds and calculated their escape routes. “Come over here, Liam.” He gestured at the balcony door as the roof above them began to crack and groan, sending the children huddling closer together. “Ok, we’ll form a chain; I’ll stay up here and lower you down, then we’ll get the kids out one by one as I drop them to you.”

“What?!” Liam shook his head. “No way! We’re going together or not at all.”

“Liam, we don’t have-” Theo dived backwards as the roof buckled and collapsed, sending a cascade of sparks and burning debris down into the room, cutting him off from Liam. “Liam?!”

“Theo!”

“It’s ok, I’ll get you out of there!” Theo moved around the pile until he could see Liam through the smoke and fire. “I’m coming, ok?”

“There are five kids near you,” Liam backed up with the other children at his feet. “Just grab them and go! Get the rescue teams up here and we can-”

“I’m not leaving you!” Theo shook his head, grimacing as the children screamed and wailed around him, the heat becoming unbearably intense. He was losing sight of Liam to the smoke and fire while the kids on his side of the debris were staggering around, dazed and blinded by the heat and haze. Theo could hear the gas lines in the nearby kitchen beginning to rattle and shake, their resistance to the heat spent, he was out of time, a decision _had_ to be made. “Liam…”

 

It wasn’t a ball of fire that Theo saw when he closed his eyes at night and eventually drifted off to sleep once the Ambien had taken hold. It wasn’t the apartment he and Liam had called home for four years go up in flames when he tossed and turned in the narrow bed off his office. It was the faces of those children that forced him to wake in a cold sweat, shivering and quaking as he relived that afternoon over and over again. 

It was a choice Theo knew would haunt him forever; leaving the children and reaching over the flames to grab Liam around the waist, tossing him over one shoulder and sprinting for the balcony, clearing it with inches to spare and crashing down onto the emergency landing mats the rescue workers had set up around the building. Liam had pounded at his back and chest, screaming and shouting and protested, cries of anguish ripping from his throat as he rolled off Theo to look up at the doorway they had come from. Billowing flames and a ball of fire exploded from within the apartment, a little girl’s body draped across the balcony’s edge, unmoving.

He knew that the decision would cost him everything; Liam couldn’t stay with him, could never forgive him, could never speak to him again. It didn’t matter what he said after that day, or how many hours they spent in therapy, their relationship had been irrevocably broken. Their dreams of home and work, family and friends, dogs and children immolated in a split-second decision. 

Liam had left him there in that dusty, blood-splattered country, going back to Beacon Hills, back to his old life, old comforts, even if they did ring hollow. But Theo endured, throwing himself into his work, his reputation as ruthless and cold and calculating leading to greater results and ever-higher enemy kill counts. If he spilled enough blood maybe then he could drown out the consequences of his choices, douse the fires that haunted his every moment, make the images of violence and death and suffering fall away. 

But it never worked, the last time Theo had heard from Liam was when his ex-husband had sent him a final text asking where he wanted his stuff from their storage container to be shipped to. Liam had joined the UN on a volunteering mission and requested Theo not try and find him. The man had complied with that as soon as he found out that Liam was going to a disaster relief post in the Caribbean, that he wouldn’t be in any danger. No matter what else might have happened between them, no matter the horrors that repeated themselves every night on the back of Theo’s eyelids, he would always protect Liam. Theo would let the entire world and all its children burn if it meant Liam would live.

**Author's Note:**

> Probably not what you were expecting during Thiam week, but it can’t be all puppies and bunnies and smut! The other two works I have planned are much lighter.


End file.
